meeting the folks
yee-haw!
i spent my thanksgiving in pheonix, arizona.
with conor's family. all 16 of us.
16 people is a pretty large group, but it's actually quite small compared to what i got used to, growing up - on one holiday during high school, i swear to you, i counted 50 people at my aunt's house.
but since the last few years have dumped me into very small, very quaint thanksgivings, a 16 (count) party was a welcome diversion from my often-lonesome 20-something life in san francisco. we had grandparents, parents, step-parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, twins, a dog, you name it.
we did:
1. arts and crafts (tie-dye, sewing projects, jewelry making)
2. games (checkers, sharades)
3. hikes & walks
4. visits to "old town" pheonix, and "rawhide" (another old west tourist town)
5. a group photo, dressed like cowboys & floozies (sepia-toned... you know the kind... completely ridiculous)
6. mexican food
7. margarita's, cocktail hour, enough booze to hide the headache from the kids running in circles around you
so all in all, one cannot complain. i'm a sucker for dumb activities like tie-dye. even if the shirt i came home with is an XXL and ugly as sin. i'll never wear it. but that wasn't the point. the point is that i'm the kind of person who likes being around large, chaotic families. i honestly don't mind helping a 10 year old make a beaded necklace. i don't mind carrying an 8 year old on my back, all the way down a mountain during a hike. i'm the kind of person that 11-year old boys get crushes on because i'll help them with their sewing projects.
and i'm also the kind of person who will happily sit through a hour of looking at grammy's sketches & photos from her art shows (which were quite cool, i have to say), and i will happily laugh at grandpa's jokes (because they're actually hilarious - only hard to hear. he has no vocal chords. just one of those vibrating things he has to stick to up to the hole in his neck, which makes him sound like a robot. very rad).
the bigger the family crowd the better. i like it when i can disappear into the chaos and feel completely enveloped. no one pays too much attention to you when the group is large. you can be visible when you want to be, and invisible when you want to be. its perfect...
... because i'm also the kind of person who loves the quiet moments - like when conor and i could sneak away from the group and just hang out together, sitting in the sun, taking in the dry phoenix landscape, and enjoying the fact that we have a few days off of work, to hang out. together.
i spent my thanksgiving in pheonix, arizona.
with conor's family. all 16 of us.
16 people is a pretty large group, but it's actually quite small compared to what i got used to, growing up - on one holiday during high school, i swear to you, i counted 50 people at my aunt's house.
but since the last few years have dumped me into very small, very quaint thanksgivings, a 16 (count) party was a welcome diversion from my often-lonesome 20-something life in san francisco. we had grandparents, parents, step-parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, twins, a dog, you name it.
we did:
1. arts and crafts (tie-dye, sewing projects, jewelry making)
2. games (checkers, sharades)
3. hikes & walks
4. visits to "old town" pheonix, and "rawhide" (another old west tourist town)
5. a group photo, dressed like cowboys & floozies (sepia-toned... you know the kind... completely ridiculous)
6. mexican food
7. margarita's, cocktail hour, enough booze to hide the headache from the kids running in circles around you
so all in all, one cannot complain. i'm a sucker for dumb activities like tie-dye. even if the shirt i came home with is an XXL and ugly as sin. i'll never wear it. but that wasn't the point. the point is that i'm the kind of person who likes being around large, chaotic families. i honestly don't mind helping a 10 year old make a beaded necklace. i don't mind carrying an 8 year old on my back, all the way down a mountain during a hike. i'm the kind of person that 11-year old boys get crushes on because i'll help them with their sewing projects.
and i'm also the kind of person who will happily sit through a hour of looking at grammy's sketches & photos from her art shows (which were quite cool, i have to say), and i will happily laugh at grandpa's jokes (because they're actually hilarious - only hard to hear. he has no vocal chords. just one of those vibrating things he has to stick to up to the hole in his neck, which makes him sound like a robot. very rad).
the bigger the family crowd the better. i like it when i can disappear into the chaos and feel completely enveloped. no one pays too much attention to you when the group is large. you can be visible when you want to be, and invisible when you want to be. its perfect...
... because i'm also the kind of person who loves the quiet moments - like when conor and i could sneak away from the group and just hang out together, sitting in the sun, taking in the dry phoenix landscape, and enjoying the fact that we have a few days off of work, to hang out. together.
posted by megan at
6:56:00 PM
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